Acres of Diamonds: The Story That Became CEODentist Philosophy
Why a 135-year-old parable is still the most important lesson for private practice owners.
— 2025 Revisited —
I first published these ideas in Colorado Biz Today in 2008. At the time, my wife and I had been going to the Sushi Den on Pearl Street in Denver for about thirteen years. The restaurant has since grown to three locations, nearly across the street from each other, built entirely on loyalty, relationship, and word of mouth. Nothing about that surprises me. It is exactly what the parable predicts.
THE STORY THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
Russell Herman Conwell was born in 1843. He became a lawyer, a newspaper editor, and eventually a clergyman. During his ministry, young people from his congregation came to him repeatedly explaining that they wanted higher education but could not afford it. Conwell asked himself a question that would define the rest of his life: why couldn't there be a college dedicated to serving poor but deserving young people?
He went on a speaking tour. He gave more than 6,000 lectures over a ten-year period. At every lecture, he told the same story. The money poured in. He raised several million dollars and founded what is known today as Temple University.
He told the same story 6,000 times and built a university.
The story was Acres of Diamonds.
A young African farmer heard tales of others who had grown rich by discovering diamond mines. Consumed by possibility, he sold his farm and spent the rest of his life searching the continent for diamonds. He never found them. Broke, frustrated, and worn out, he ended his life.
The man who purchased his farm was crossing a creek on the property one day when he noticed a gleam of light from the creek bed. He pulled out a stone and set it on his mantle as a curiosity. Weeks later, a visitor recognized it immediately: it was a diamond. They went together to the creek. The creek bed was covered with them.
The farm the original owner had sold for practically nothing turned out to be the most productive diamond mine on the entire continent of Africa.
"If the farmer had taken the time to study and learn about diamonds, and to have thoroughly explored the property he already had before looking elsewhere, he would have found all the riches he ever wanted right under his nose." — Russell H. Conwell
THE DENTAL PRACTICE PARALLEL
When I read that story, thirteen years before writing the Colorado Biz Today column, I saw every dental practice I had ever worked with in that farmer.
Brilliant clinicians. Devoted teams. Practices spending $3,000–$5,000 a month on new patient marketing. And in virtually every one of those practices, fewer than 10% of active patients had ever referred a single person.
While they searched elsewhere, their diamonds sat waiting. In the patient management system. In the relationships that hadn't been activated. In the existing base that had never been properly asked, enabled, or given a reason to send someone.
My company fills conference rooms all over the country with dentists who come to our programs looking for ways to secure new patients. What do we teach them? What Conwell taught 6,000 times, that the real diamonds are right in their own backyard.
Practices spend countless hours and millions of dollars on marketing campaigns, gimmicks, and offers to lure new patients. If they would only invest the same time and some of that money into truly understanding their respective markets, learning the real wants and needs of their current patient base, and building the skills needed to deepen those relationships, they would realize that they too are standing in their own acres of diamonds.
— 2025 Update —
Seventeen years after that column, I watch practices make the exact same mistake with better tools. Practice management software that can generate every relevant report in seconds, yet owners who haven't run those reports in months. Referral tracking capabilities sitting unused while the practice spends more on external marketing.
The diamonds are still there. Most practices are still walking past them on the way out the door to look somewhere else.
WHERE YOUR DIAMONDS ACTUALLY ARE
They are in the 90% of active patients who have never referred a single person to your practice.
Pull that report. For every patient in your active base, ask: how many referrals from this person in the last 12 months? In the last 24 months? What percentage of your total active patients have referred even one person?
The number will humble you. In most practices, it is under 10%.
That means roughly 90% of the people who already know you, already trust you, and already receive care from you have never sent anyone your way.
That is not a marketing problem. That is an Acres of Diamonds problem.
They are in the lifetime value of the relationships you have already built. One loyal patient retained for a decade does not just represent their own production. They represent their household, their spouse, children, parents, and the warm network of people who will listen to a trusted recommendation. A loyal patient household, retained over ten years, realistically represents $10,000–$18,000 in lifetime practice production.
At 100 loyal household relationships, that is $1,000,000 to $1,800,000 in lifetime production from patients you already have.
They are in the stories already being told about your practice. Somewhere in your patient base right now, someone is telling their neighbor about the dentist who finally made them feel comfortable. Someone is recommending you to their coworker who has been putting off care for years. The question is whether your practice has a system to harvest that recommendation, or whether it happens by accident when it happens at all.
THE LESSON CONWELL DREW — AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOUR PRACTICE
"Your diamonds are not in far-away mountains or in distant seas. They are in your own back yard if you will but dig for them."
The opportunity is not out there. It is already in your practice.
The diamonds are in your patient management system. In the relationships that haven't been activated. In the existing base that has never been fully asked, enabled, or given a reason to refer.
Conwell told one story 6,000 times and built a university. The Sushi Den served the same families for thirty years and built three restaurants.
What happens when you mine what you already have?
Next week: The last thing you need is another new patient.
